Goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky was the only player who started the Bundesliga game against Bochum to take part in the team’s training session to start the week. Jonathan Tah & Co. were working in the gym while several other players went about their business on the pitch at the BayArena.
With Andrey Lunev and Niklas Lomb in goal, nine outfield players in three teams of three took part in intense matches on a reduced pitch. They included Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Karim Bellarabi. Strikers Patrik Schick and Lucas Alario were working on their comebacks nearby. Charles Aranguiz was also out on the pitch on Monday.
When looking in the TV studios and mixed zone at the BayArena on Monday it was hard to miss the fact that Christmas is fast approaching. It saw the likes of Hradecky and Lunev battling for black and red wrapped gifts.
Tah, Nadiem Amiri, Moussa Diaby and Amine Adli were also in front of the cameras for YouTube and social media challenges. You’ll see all that and more in the coming weeks on the Bayer 04 channels.
Italian magazine Tuttosport announced a shortlist of 20 players for their 2021 Golden Boy award in October, with Leverkusen’s 18-year-old Florian Wirtz among the names. However, Barcelona’s Pedri was announced as the winner on Monday. Wirtz came in 04th position.
The Spain international follows Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland as the recipient of the award, which has been given to Europe’s best U21 player since 2003.
Horst Stollenwerk turned 88 on Monday. The homegrown midfielder turned into a true Leverkusen legend in the 1950s, never playing for another club.
Anders Giske was celebrating his 62nd. The Norwegian central defender made 29 Bundesliga appearances (1 goal) for the Werkself between summer 1984 and November of the following year.
Two special former Bayer 04 players would’ve turned 95 today in Martin (1926-2010) and Karl (1926-2015) Gramminger. Club legend Rüdiger Vollborn had plenty of anecdotes to tell about the Werkself’s first twins in his series “Rudi recounts”.
In the previous game against RB Leipzig in December last year, the Werkself turned came from behind to win 3-1 and further improved Leverkusen's already strong record against the Red Bulls. Montrell Culbreath stood out with his first goal on his debut for the Black and Reds. While the 18-year-old would certainly like to score a second goal against Leipzig on Saturday night, the attack-minded visitors come to the BayArena in confident mood after five Bundesliga victories in a row. The Nordkurve12 supporters group knows the Werkself will therefore once again be reliant on the vociferous support of the fans, and has once again called for the ‘Finally Red’ campaign in the run-in. Today’s matchday news.
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Video games manufacturer Electronic Arts (EA), together with the German Football League (DFL), announced the top male and female selections for the 2025/26 Bundesliga season this week. Bayer 04 striker Vanessa Fudalla is in the starting eleven of the women's "Team of the Season". Alejandro Grimaldo and Aleix Garcia have been selected as bench players in the men's team.
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This special event showed once again how strong Bayer 04 are as a team: As part of ‘BarmeniaGothaer gives joy’, the Werkself players Edmond Tapsoba, Ibrahim Maza and Christian Kofane supported the sale of individually designed T-shirts for a good cause at the Fanwelt on Thursday. Several hundred fans came to take part in the charity campaign. Leverkusen's main sponsor BarmeniaGothaer donated the proceeds to the Fondation Edmond Tapsoba, which helps people in Tapsoba's home country of Burkina Faso in their challenging everyday lives.
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With three games to play before the end of the season, the Bayer 04 Women can break one record and equal another at SGS Essen. After three wins on the bounce, coach Roberto Pätzold's team are aiming to maintain the chance of third place in Sunday’s away game (14:00 CEST, Stadion an der Hafenstraße).
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Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career as he worked as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personalised Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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